Mitchell Aulds-Stier Volunteers with Blessings in a Backpack

Throughout his life and career, Mitchell Aulds-Stier has made an effort to give back to his community through support of nonprofit and charitable organizations.

One organization he has worked with recently is Blessings in a Backpack.

Blessings in a Backpack: Tackling Food Poverty in the US

It remains a startling fact that, even today, over 16 million children in the US live in “food insecure” homes. This means they live with the threat of hunger, or struggling to avoid hunger, on a daily basis.

Circumstances should not dictate a child’s future

3 out of 5 U.S. teachers say that there are children in their classrooms that regularly come to school hungry. The effects are all too apparent: being hungry means you can’t concentrate and your academic performance suffers.

These kids do get fed at school but often only because they are on federally funded with free or reduced price meal programs (which actually accounts for 70% of the total of all school meals). This may be the only time the students eat all day. So what happens when they go home on a Friday afternoon? After all, hunger doesn’t take a break, does it?

That’s where Blessings in a Backpack steps in

Blessings in a Backpack is a non-profit organization that, partly via private sector funding and partly through public partnerships, works with schools and communities to make sure these kids get adequate food over the weekend during the 38 weeks of term time. Volunteers and supporters like Mitchell Aulds-Stier will gather non-perishable, kid-friendly foods such as granola bars, raisins, apple sauce, crackers, macaroni and cheese, and soups during the week. This gets packed into backpacks on a Thursday and allocated to the kids who need them on a Friday. Each kid gets enough food and nutrition for the weekend, ready to start back at school the following Monday.

As of this posting, Blessings in a Backpack operates in 47 states, serving over 92,000 children in 1,064 schools, numbers that Mitchell Aulds-Stier is very proud of.

How you can help

• Donate: Just $100 will feed a child on weekends for an entire school year. This low cost is only possible because Blessings in a Backpack works with communities and individuals like Mitchell Aulds-Stier across the country to leverage local resources and keeps costs down. You can make a one-off or monthly donation, and target a specific school or program if you prefer. All donations are tax deductible.
• Start a Program: If you want to start a Blessings in a Backpack program in your community, there’s a simple four-step process to follow, including working with the school principal and local food vendors.
• Fundraise: Blessings in a Backpack has a number of fun and creative ways to fundraise in your local community. Visit the site to learn more: https://www.blessingsinabackpack.org/get-involved/fundraising/
• Volunteer: Blessings in a Backpack will help you locate a program local to you and find any number of ways for you to get involved, from starting a program from scratch to packing the backpacks to hosting a food drive.

Mitchell Aulds-Stier is dedicated to the Blessings in a Backpack mission of ending hunger for children throughout the United States and all around the world. Even small acts can make a difference. Find out how you can start making a difference today! Contact Mitchell Aulds-Stier to learn more.

Mitchell Aulds-Stier on Skydiving

Mitchell Aulds-Stier pursues adventure.

He loves pushing the limits and getting involved with a variety of extreme sports. In 2011, Mitchell Aulds-Stier took the opportunity to go solo skydiving over the city of Chicago.

The Thrilling Experience of Skydiving

Skydiving is not everyone's cup of tea, however for those who are looking for the ultimate rush, this is the best way to achieve just that. Skydiving offers something surreal: it unleashes you and makes you feel free.

Mitchell Aulds-Stier describes the feeling you get when free falling through the air as simply amazing and thrilling. It takes you to another place mentally. When falling you feel the adrenaline rush that streams through your body when faced with terminal velocity and excitement. The interesting thing about skydiving is that it distorts your perception of time; although the dive may feel like forever, in actuality it only lasts about a full minute before the parachute opens, slowly floating you to the ground – it was in that moment, that Mitchell Aulds-Stier knew he wanted more.

As there will be a professional skydiver with you, at least for your first time, you will be in capable hands with nothing to worry about. Mitchell Aulds-Stier, however, trained in order to experience solo skydiving, which is an even more thrilling and breathtaking experience. The training will consist of performing maneuvers and conducting drills on chute troubleshooting on the ground to prepare you for the worst-case scenarios. Although he lives an adventurous lifestyle, Mitchell Aulds-Stier was still quite nervous before taking the plunge.

Before taking to jump, Mitchell Aulds-Stier recommends doing power poses to boost your confidence and prepare yourself mentally. Full training is provided and will be required of you to ensure, on the day you are ready and don’t feel so nervous and have an idea of where the dive will be going and what direction you are heading. You will be given a safety briefing that will take you through important information. From there they will provide you with safety equipment such as goggles, jumpsuit and headgear to ensure your safety.

While in the airplane, when you are preparing for the dive, an instructor will be with you to keep you calm and comfortable. The plane will climb steeply until it reaches a safe altitude to jump (15,000 ft., depending on the jump). As the plane nears this altitude, the passenger will begin to reflexively yawn. Also, you'll notice that even on a hot and humid summer day, the temperature drops precipitously. Finally, the crew begins to give the signal that it is time to jump. When the skydive instructors are not jumping with clients, they tend to bum rides to 15,000 ft. to jump with one another. The fearlessness and in-air acrobatics that they exhibit are breathtaking. In this final moment before the jump, it is hard not to feel your heart racing, but Mitchell Aulds-Stier assures you the entire experience is well worth it in the end for any adventure seeker!

Connect with Mitchell Aulds-Stier on Twitter for other adventure stories and ideas.

How to Find Volunteer Opportunities

Mitchell Aulds-Stier has served his community as a volunteer for many years, working with a number of groups and organizations.

If you are looking to find volunteer opportunities, the best place to start is in your own neighborhood. If you look close to home you may already have people that you can reach out to without having to worry about commutes or travel expenses. Many people take on volunteer opportunities in order to enhance their CV’s. There are many people and organizations looking for volunteers, but unfortunately most people don’t know where to start.

After exploring your local neighborhood, Mitchell Aulds-Stier suggests the next place to go to find volunteer opportunities is the internet. There are volunteer sites set up to help people just like you find the work they are looking for, whether full or part-time.

Throughout his volunteering, Mitchell Aulds-Stier has utilized a tremendous number of resources from the internet to connect with local non-profit organizations. He recommends stopping by the non-profit organizations and speak with other community organizers to find. Depending on the type of work, you may need to undergo a criminal record check especially if you are working with children or vulnerable people. This is to ensure their safety and of course to keep within company policies.

Spend time talking with friends and colleagues to cultivate potential areas of interest. It is important to have a deep passion for the area in which you will be volunteering. Perhaps it may even be worthwhile to explore your interests by spending a few hours volunteering with several organizations in order to solidify which areas you truly connect with.

Community centers and churches often reach out for volunteers, both of which are terrific resources for finding out about more volunteer opportunities. You don’t have to search far for people looking for your services so long as you can prove your willingness and dependability. You can donate a little or a lot of your time so long as you meet the criteria and could find yourself gaining skills that help you further your career in the future.

If you have a local council, it is likely to have information on projects taking place in your community that you are able to partake in. This could help you to get to know the people in your community and give something back to others in the area that you live. From helping walk dogs for those that are unable, to working voluntarily in a nursing home, or soup kitchen, there are many opportunities out there for volunteers, it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you!

Check out Mitchell Aulds-Stier on Crunchbase to learn more about his professional and volunteer experiences of contact him today on his personal website: http://mitchellauldsstier.com/contact.